Usage Share of Operating Systems - Desktop and Laptop Computers

Desktop and Laptop Computers

There is little openly published information on the usage share of desktop and laptop computers. Gartner publishes estimates, but the way the estimates are calculated is not openly published. Also, sales may overstate usage. Most computers are sold with a pre-installed OS; some users replace that OS with a different one due to personal preference. Conversely, sales underestimate usage by not counting pirated copies. For example, in 2009, “U.S. research firm IDC estimated that 80% of software sold in China last year was pirated.” (Windows was mentioned, but no specific estimate for Windows was given.) As another example, in 2007, the automated push of IE7 update onto legal copies of Windows, contrasted with web browser share statistics, led one author to “estimate that 25–35% of all Windows XP machines are illegal.”